mandated reporters to counsel them about how important it is to call in the authorities if you even have a tiny suspicion that there may be child abuse. and this is not the end of it for the principal. she was also named in a civil lawsuit that was just filed in the courts, and that is with another young child at the same school who is alleging that the principal did not do enough to prevent her from being sexually molested by mr. chandler. reporting live in sojourner, marianne favro, nbc bay area news. one last day. president obama is finishing his campaign where it all began, iowa. that's where his 2008 caucus victory launched his road to the white house. governor romney had a whirlwind schedule today, making five separate campaign stops. nbc bay area steve handelsman is live in cincinnati, ohio, a state both candidates desperately want to win. steve? >> reporter: janelle, thanks. good evening from cincinnati. it's a pivotal part of this pivotal state. ohio is so important that it's

the only battleground where both of these presidential candidates campaigned on this final day. governor mitt romney began his last day push in florida. >> we can begin a better tomorrow, tomorrow, and with the help of the people in florida, that's exactly what is going to happen. >> reporter: a few hours later he was in virginia. >> if you're tired of being tired, then i ask you to vote for change. help us win this. >> reporter: with bruce springsteen, president obama started today in wisconsin. >> you know that i'll fight for you and your families every single day as hard as i know how. >> reporter: last night colorado a huge rally. after a shimmy with stevie wonder in cincinnati, ohio, the president urged his backers to vote today. the lines to early voting in ohio had been long, but republicans won a fight to shorten voting hours. mary jenkins was out to get

obama backers to the polls. she figured she could make the difference nationally. >> i wouldn't be able to sleep at night if i didn't put in every shift that i put in over these four days. absolutely. thank you so much for your enthusiasm. >> thank you. >> reporter: across town is a mitt romney phone bank. >> a we're just calling to remind you that your vote is very important. >> reporter: ohio republicans like democrats figure their work could decide the presidency. >> if this county ends up red for mitt romney, it will go a very, very long way to winning this state. >> reporter: governor romney left a second virginia stop for ohio, columbus, planning to end up in new hampshire. president obama would head out of ohio for iowa for his final event on this frantic day. here in ohio tomorrow, republican poll watchers are threatening to challenge thousands of votes, which could mean if the race here is as close as pre-race polls indicate it might be, that the ohio total

in the race for the white house won't be announced for ten days. live from cincinnati, i'm steve handelsman, nbc bay area news. >> tomorrow a big day for america. steve, thank you so much. in the bay area, the count is on. hundreds of thousands of ballots being counted as we speak. early voting is the hot trend, and it's changing the dynamic of this election. nbc bay area's damian trujillo takes us behind the scenes. he joins us at a very busy registrar of voters office in san jose. damian, it's probably controlled chaos i presume. >> reporter: that's what i would call it. this is one of the drop-off a locations for your ballots. this will be open for the next 24 hours so you can drive up androf up your ballot in there. if not, these people will be here for the next couple of hours. you can drive up and give them your signed ballots. this is now the preferred choice for voting here in the south bay. there is little time to allow

the sorting machines to cool off at the county registrar's office. the agency sends out more than 600,000 vote by mail ballots, and a lot of them are coming back. >> we received back over 262,000. that means that about 43% of the ballots that have been issued have already been returned in. >> reporter: workers are opening envelopes for many more early voters, roughly 20,000 come in every day. today workers will open sammy's ballot, who just voted at the registrar's office. >> proud to be voting in this wonderful country. that's the main reason. early voting is wonderful. >> reporter: in fact, in the south bay, more people now choose to vote by mail than actually go to the polls on election day. organizers here say it's become a national trend as well. >> i'm voting early because tomorrow is going to be mayhem down here. and i'm trying to avoid some of the traffic. and that's why i'm here today. >> reporter: these are the

actual machines scanning the mail-in ballots. the machines instantly tally the votes, and those numbers are the first to come out at 8:00 on election day. >> this is democracy at work there is a lot of effort that put into it. and absolutely. and we certainly hope that every voter who is eligible to vote will certainly exercise the right. >> reporter: just like seam solman, who took the vote nearly three years ago after moving from argentina. for the first time in a presidential election, solman is about to be counted. there has been a steady flow of drive-through voters at the registrar's office. of course they voted at home. they signed the back of the envelope on their ballots, and they're dropping up it off here. these folks are here until 7:00, making it easier to drop off your ballot, and bam, you have voted. damian trujillo, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. it is the hot trend in voting. the mystery is over, but it might be too late to really make a difference. a state watch stop group claims

that the $11 million mystery campaign donation from arizona cutes the largest case of moneylaundering in california history. the fair political practice commission spent much of last week in court arguing the phoenix political group must turn over its records. the state supreme court agreed yesterday. the money went to opponents of prop 30. governor brown's tax initiative to help fund public schools. education groups who backed the measure are outraged at the amount of outside influence. >> we had $100,000 put into a school board race in oakland from outside donors. so this is something that the country has to look at. this is about our democracy. it's really not about a single issue or a single race. this is about money influencing how votes are cast and influencing elections unduly. >> governor brown is still at it, touring the state, promoting

pop 30, which pollsters say is too close to call. both nationally and locally, this was a critical election. we invite you to stay with us here at nbc bay area and our website, nbcbayarea.com all day tomorrow for complete election coverage throughout the day and night. we have some developing news in the east bay, where a deadly three-car crash has shut down busy vasco road near the city of brentwood. it happened about two miles south of camino diablo. the chp says the driver of a subaru struck a retaining wall and then swerved and overcorrected, sending the car into a silver mercedes, killing that driver, a 67-year-old san ramon man. his passenger reportedly has minor injuries. the subaru then caught fire and a red pontiac then struck the mercedes. broken car parts littered both the north and southbound lanes. the chp estimates the roadway may reopen in about one hour. a dramatic rescue in marin choppy waters flipped over a

motor boat, sending a family into the chilly waters, and trapping two young kids inside the boat. nbc bay area's stephanie trong has more. >> reporter: here in tomales bay the water can seem quite calm, but it can be incredibly powerful, sometimes capsizing boats. that's what happened to one family. officials say seven people are very lucky to be alive. >> they're lucky that all seven of them survived. the water is cold. it's rough. >> reporter: a sonoma county sheriff's helicopter was in the area sunday afternoon and was on the scene within two minutes followed by marin county firefighters. they were able to rescue the three adults, a 12-year-old and a 2-year-old, but quickly realized there were two kids stuck inside the cabin. >> inside the boat, they could hear them screaming and crying. >> reporter: they towed it about 200 yards to shore, and were forced to cut the hull open to

get the 5 and 7-year-old who had been stuck in the cold water and pitch-black for over an hour. it was a success, but chief roberts says there are four to five similar boat cap sighs here each year. not all of them end so nicely. >> this water out here is very cold. it's right here around 50 to 55 degrees. so your exposure time is anywhere from maybe 30 minutes to if you're in really good shape an hour or two. >> reporter: not to mention none of the seven was wearing a life jacket. under california law, on any boats under 26 feet, children 13 and under must wear a life jacket. roberts stresses beyond legal guidelines, it's just common sense. >> they all could have easily been killed. it could have been seven fatalities. >> reporter: last weekend crab season opened up which means a huge influx of people to get dungeness crab ahead of thanksgiving. but experts warn with the nicer fall temperatures also comes some complacency. make sure to check the conditions out there and play it safe, wait for a better day.

at tomales day, stephanie trong, nbc bay area news. >> thankfully the kids are okay. we have record heat across the bay area, but there are big changes on the way. let's bring in jeff ranieri with a look at what is next. the last couple of weeks have been a roller coaster, jeff. >> a huge temperature extremes expected over the next seven days. today 11 different records set across the bay area. and the remarkable thing is we could have today more records on this single day than we have had for any other day. not only this year, but for last year. bodega bay one of them at 84 degrees. the old record at 76, shattering the old record in half moon bay at 80 degrees. the old, 55. and 78 in hayward with the old record at 77. san jose with a record-setting temperature of 83 degrees, breaking the old one set way back in 1901. so temperatures about 10 to 15 degrees above average, and we are going to be in for some big-time changes. we're going to track the system that is going to be track

dropping down from the gulf of alaska. over the next three or four days, this will drastically change the weather pattern. temperature 20 to 25 degrees cooler. we'll have the timeline on all of this for you and when you can expect the first raindrops coming up little bit later on in the show. >> okay, thanks, jeff. a message inside a bottle? still to come at 5:00, investigators in the east bay piece together clues in a suspicious fire. and a day at the zoo ends in tragedy. we have new details tonight about how a child fell into a zoo exhibit. plus, round two. another strong storm targets the region already devastated by hurricane sandy. ♪

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so, anything else we can do for you, let us know. but you'll keep it to yogurt, right? 'cause we shouldn't really help with your love life. yoplait. it is so good! the man accused of vandalizing a muni bus following the giants world series win face adjudges today. 22-year-old gregory pleaded not

guilty to felony vandalism charges. but after his arraignment, his attorney says he acknowledges responsibility for this incident. he said the giants victory brought out the worst in gregory. he was arrested after this picture was posted on facebook, prompting plenty of tips to police. if convicted, he may have to pay part of the $700,000 it will cost to replace that bus. it was the tragic ending to a bizarre situation in fremont. a naked man with a knife was shot dead by police as he was chasing his estranged wife. it happened last night on central avenue. here is the map, just blocks away from glenmore elementary school. fremont police shot and killed the 37-year-old man who was holding a knife. a woman had called police to report her roommate was being attacked by her husband. police demanded he drop the knife, and when he did not, they shot at him several times. neighbors were shocked at the police response. >> i don't understand why this happened like this, though, because he was too nice of a guy for this to happen to, you know what i mean? >> police say he was threatening

his wife with a knife. >> okay, he had a knife. shoot him in the leg, shoot him in the arm. you don't have to shoot the man in the chest or whatever to kill him. you don't have to shoot a person that many times. put it like that. i heard the gun. too many gunshots. >> the two officers involved were placed on paid administrative leave which is standard procedure. a beer bottle is on the way to the crime lab. it's the primary clue at an arson in a strip mall. a fire broke out at a beauty salon just before midnight. firefighters had things under control, but damage is estimated at over $100,000. investigator says an unexploded molotov cocktail was found on the ground outside the business. a rag was tucked inside the bottle, along with flammable liquid. experts will analyze the bottle for fingerprints. the timing couldn't be worse. the east coast is bracing for more damage one week after superstorm sandy, here comes another sizable storm.

today the staten island ferry was packed with people going back to work and school for the first time since that storm. but the cleanup and recovery is far from over. at least 11,000 people are in shelters across seven states. more than a million people still don't have electricity. and now a harsh nor'easter storm is headed toward new york and new jersey. >> the forecast is for continued weather for much of the week, and potentially a serious storm with wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles an hour, beginning wednesday afternoon and into thursday. >> and of course on this election eve, help is being focused on polling locations. in new york city alone, more than 60 polling places had to be moved or closed because of last week's storm. an autopsy today has revealed that a 2-year-old boy did not die from the fall, but the mauling of wild dogs at the pittsburgh zoo. the boy's mother placed the toddler on the railing yesterday so he could get a look at the african painted dogs exhibit. but the boy slipped and fell into the enclosure.

his family and onlookers watched helplessly in horror as 11 dogs attacked the boy. >> it happened so quickly. it happened literally in seconds. it was very, very quick. there was very, very little anybody could do. >> there was a safety net below the railing, but the boy bounced off of it and into the pen. police shot and killed one dog. the other ten are in quarantine. an internal investigation at the zoo is now under way. in health matters, do you have a fear of living without your cell phone? you could be suffering from a very specific illness. it's called nomophobia. a recent british survey found nearly two-thirds of users show signs of nomo of phobia. symptoms include panic and anxiety attacks. researchers found people with it typically own multiple cell phones and compulsively check

batterieses and fears of missing an important call. researchers say a good way to treat the disorder is to turn off your phone a certain amount of time each week. >> that may be hard for some people. >> especially in the bay area. the forecast, it's so beautiful. let's check with chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. >> it is strange out here today. we had the time change. sunset is earlier. and then we're in november, and we're dealing with temperatures close to 90 degrees. not only for thor into juror valleys, but up against the coastline. santa cruz at 89 degrees so far for your high. that was a new record. also 83 in san jose. oakland 79, and san francisco topping out with a new record at 78 degrees. a lot of these numbers, about 10 to 15 degrees above the old record. so shattering these numbers in many cases. go from that 89 here in santa cruz today, while above average to well below average as we look ahead towards thursday, with 50s coming back aboard not only for the coastline, but for the interior valleys. and here is the other thing we are now watching. a winter weather advisory has been posted right up across the

sierra as thursday and friday gets here. we're talking anywhere from 4 to 10 inches of snow. blinding snow and wind gusts that could be as high as 60 miles per hour. and here is the other caveat. snow levels could go down to about 2500 feet. so we're going to have some major weather whiplash coming as we head throughout the end of the workweek. current temperatures are mild. we are still well above where we should be for this time of the year, even though we have cooled down from the daytime highs. 74 in san francisco. let's take you outside to the live hd sky camera network. and we have the slight offshore flow. so we're dealing with clear skies, but there is plenty of haze right even into san francisco. it is a spectacular sunset tonight. this is postcard perfect here across downtown. do not expect any fog for tonight or for tomorrow as we're going to be dealing with more heat. we have all this warm air sitting off to the south. that's going to gradually start to fade here as we head throughout the next 48 hours. we're going to see this new system approach.

the cold air, the rain, the wind in the sierra snow coming as we head throughout the next three to four days. for tomorrow, we are going to stay sunny and also warm. temperature, well, they're going to be in the 70s and 80s for the interior valleys and mainly 60s against the immediate coastline. wednesday will be the transitional day as numbers start to go down. and then by thursday and friday, that's when we're looking at the rainfall starting the arrive. 8:00 a.m. on thursday. a little shower activity in the north bay. by noon hour, we're expecting that first wave of rainfall. not only to get the roadways wet, but to also help to drop those temperatures. so let's get a look. for tuesday we're going to see our daytime highs, well, stay pretty warm here. 87 in san jose. 89 in milpitas. also 89 in evergreen, and also for the east bay, more records expected here. 83 in walnut creek. 48 in blackhawk. 82 in pleasanton. and in san francisco, low to mid-80s again. so we're going to see more records here fall even for the coastal areas for tuesday. on your three-day forecast, election day, sunny skies. it looks all good if you're

headed out to the polls. wednesday and thursday cloud cover increasing. rain arrives, and temperatures plummet as we head into thursday and friday with the rain. we're going to see them drop about 30, maybe even 40 degrees. the potential here of thunderstorms on friday. and then as you look ahead towards this upcoming weekend, well, it will finally feel like november. and it looks like we could be locked in this colder pattern, at least over the next seven to 14 days. this may be our last temperature swing, at least in the intermediate. >> we're going without the bang. >> yeah we are. >> thanks, jeff. >> that whiplash is fun. thanks, jeff. still ahead, want to live like a famous bay area millionaire? the prime real estate now on the market that will let you live like a tech tycoon.

apple claims it set a new record this past weekend. three million ipads in three days. on friday, the new ipad mini and the new ipad 4 went on sale. and as usual, buyers packed the store, especially for the mini,

the smaller and cheaper version sells for about $300. the starting place for the ipad 4. you want to be part of the apple legacy and live like the w wa -- woz? it once belonged to steve wozniak, who bought it for about a million dollars in 1989. he sold it ten years later. the home includes some woz originals like a koy pond, a waterfall and a poll to get in between floors. >> we'll have to pool all our money together and then we can share the house. back in a moment.

okay. let's take a look at what is coming up next on nbc bay area. >> jessica aguirre has the rundown for us. >> raj and janelle, some people are having to wait five hours to vote. now both sides are getting ready for a long legal battle in case the election is too close to call in the end. we're going to have that story next on "nightly news." and then new at 6:00, building a better light bulb. we go inside the silicon valley company teaming up with apple in hopes you change the way you light your home. we'll have those stories when i join raj at 6:00. >> we'll see you then. thanks for joining us tonight. we hope to see you at 6:00. >> good night.